steve, let's inside these numbers. you've got some charts explaining president obama's recent surge in the polls. >> yes, because while i agree with a lot of what joe said, there are someubstantive reasons why president obama should be doing better at the moment. th don't get as much tentn. so'salk litab. first, nobody is happy with the state of the economy at the moment. 2% growth with 8% unemployment. but as we've talked about on this show, it's the trend as much as absolute levels that determine how people feel. this is an historil chart of economic oimism going back to '09. wn o people's opinion where they started up with 42% being economically optimistic that things are going to get better. it went steadily down into the summer of '11 partl because of the weak economy, partly because nc t i b climbing back up with a few hiccups all the way back up to 42% right at the peak where it was during the obama presidency. so the question is why are people feeling a little better about the economy? of course,ou see this in